A Nottinghamshire high-security psychiatric hospital has reduced its nursing vacancies but says its staffing is still ‘stretched’.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee met today (19 March) to discuss an update on Rampton Hospital, a high-security psychiatric hospital near Retford.
The hospital, run by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, was rated ‘inadequate’ in January 2024 after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) watchdog found several serious problems.
The CQC said at the time there were concerns over staffing numbers, staff supervision, training, and medicine management.
In January, the committee heard of “significant improvements” at the hospital, where six out of seven recommendations made by the CQC had been completed.
In the committee updates, it was noted the hospital has successfully reduced its nursing vacancies from 18.5 whole-time equivalents to 3.5 in February 2025, with papers stating that further recruitment is “ongoing”.
However, the committee noted the hospital is still “stretched” due to an increase in admissions and a rise in patients needing to go off-site – such as for hospital visits – which requires additional staff for observations.
Jan Sensier, Executive Director of Partnerships and Strategy at the trust, said:
“It has been a tricky time since Christmas. With a number of patients going off-site, including those needing treatment at acute hospitals, the demand on staffing has increased.
“Every time they go, we’re talking about an escort of about six staff. It only takes three or four patients to be off-site, and you’ve really stretched your staffing resources.”
Councillor John Wilmott (Ind) said:
“This really proves the point that mental health issues are seriously on the increase in all areas, and it’s an issue that should concern everybody.
“The fact that staff are stretched – isn’t that a concern to you also?”
Trevor Gedeon, Associate Medical Director for the hospital, said:
“What you tend to see is that when there are difficulties in community services, it has a knock-on effect all the way up to high-security facilities.
“The people being admitted are facing greater challenges, presenting with a greater need for support in managing risks, supporting them through distress, or addressing their physical healthcare needs.
“This does place us under pressure. It’s something we are skilled at and familiar with handling. In Rampton, we have no option to say, ‘Things are too difficult’ and refer upwards. We have to meet that challenge and rise to it, which is something we do time and time again.”
Councillor David Martin (Ind) said:
“It’s a real issue to recruit and retain staff. This is a national service, and there are only three hospitals in the country that do what you do. Going forward, can you explain more about how you are recruiting staff?”
Mr Gedeon explained that the number of staff required to accompany patients off-site for acute hospital admissions depends on the individual patient.
He said:
“We’ve had to do quite a lot of work around this. Being relatively remote and isolated, attracting people willing to work in such a challenging environment is difficult.
“We’ve run various media campaigns and roadshow events to recruit staff. Over the past couple of months, some of these efforts have been quite successful.”
The hospital was visited by the CQC several times in February 2025 – the results of these inspections have not yet been released.
The CQC has also removed the conditions of registration restrictions – which required the hospital to seek permission from the CQC before admitting new patients – imposed following the ‘inadequate’ rating.
